THEY play tonight for Babe and Gehrig, DiMaggio and Mantle, Reggie and Thurman. These Yankees play to avert an infamy worse than becoming the first team to blow a three-games-to-none lead in a postseason series.

They play to avoid blowing a three-games-to-none lead to the Red Sox. They play to evade becoming the Yankee team that could not make a goal-line stand against Boston, keep the Red Sox out of an end zone they have not sniffed in 8 ½ decades. They play tonight for a legacy, a history, a way of life that has existed in the majors since sometime shortly after they put the bases at 90 feet.

For the Yanks to extend a team and a region’s misery, they must win a Game 7 that was unfathomable as recently as Sunday around midnight. Maybe that walk Mariano Rivera issued to Kevin Millar to open the ninth of Game 4 will be a stain that never goes away. Perhaps the lack of shutdown pitching will haunt the Yanks all winter – or forever.

But this is on the Yankee offense, which received more publicity in spring than “My Big Fat Obnoxious Boss” has on Fox this postseason. But, believe me, no one has seen a Big Fat Obnoxious Boss like the Yanks will if The Curse is really done tonight.

The Yanks lost 4-2 last night in a Game 6 that will be hailed throughout New England as Curt Schilling’s last stand – on one leg. But around here this was about the most expensive lineup ever going lifeless for a third straight game, matching the length of the Yankee losing streak.

A fourth straight loss means Boston goes to the World Series, the Yanks go home and George Steinbrenner goes on an organizational rampage. You know The Boss is trying to figure out if he can get Carlos Beltran on loan right now.

“All they can think about tomorrow is how to win a game,” Reggie Jackson said. “All of those side actions won’t be part of their thoughts.”

Joe Torre, who refused to discuss Game 7 before last night’s loss, did not reveal a Game 7 starter in the immediate aftermath either. But whomever it is – Kevin Brown, Orlando Hernandez, Javier Vazquez – is going to be working tired and with doubts. So the Yanks better start scoring shortly after the national anthem, and not stop.

The Yanks scored 19 times in Game 3. By the time that onslaught was done, you felt there would be epic poetry written about Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Gary Sheffield and Hideki Matsui. But the Yanks should have known this wasn’t over from a regular season when Boston seemed to have more lives than ol’ Freddy on Elm Street. In the regular season, the Red Sox never caught up from 10 ½ down despite run after run. This time Boston is all the way back, tied with a one-game season to play tonight in The Bronx.

“We are going to find out about our team, how we respond to a do-or-die game,” Jeter said.

Since the 19-run Saturday, the Yanks have 10 in three games over 35 innings. Tony Clark has hurt the Yanks in place of the injured John Olerud, and Torre perhaps should have used Kenny Lofton’s speed against Schilling’s limp. But this is not about the chorus. This is not about waiting for an Aaron Boone or Bucky Dent type to arise.

When the Yanks spiked one again on Boston in the offseason by getting A-Rod, they were thought to have built an unstoppable offense. But it has been stopped. Jeter does not look like Mr. October right now, Sheffield is not hearing “M-V-P” chants, Matsui’s ALCS MVP trophy is perilously close now to David Ortiz’s mantle and A-Rod is so A-W-O-L he was reduced to trying to slap a ball away from Bronson Arroyo to reach base in the eighth last night. The foursome is a combined 8-for-56 in the three-game losing streak.

Tonight the main men of the Yankee offense get another chance to preserve a vital piece of their organization’s legacy, one last chance to make a goal-line stand against the Red Sox.

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Choking in the clutch

The Yankees and Red Sox are headed for Game 7 tonight at the Stadium because the Bombers forgot how to hit in the clutch as Boston won Games 4-6 of the ALCS. Here’s a look at the difference in the Yanks’ hitting with runners in scoring position between the first three games and the second three games of the series: